Trump's driver's license casts doubt on height claims

Donald Trump and his doctor claim he’s 6-foot-3, but his New York driver’s license says he’s actually an inch shorter.

A copy of Trump’s license, obtained by POLITICO through an open-records request, lists the president-elect at 6-foot-2.

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It may just be an inch, but size apparently matters to Trump. A letter that the businessman candidate displayed this summer from his longtime gastroenterologist — while appearing on the Dr. Oz show — stated he was 6-foot-3, though media reports were quick to point out discrepancies.

Slate, for example, posited that Trump was adding an inch to his height to avoid crossing into obesity territory — he also weighed 236 pounds — on the BMI index. That Slate article pointed to multiple media that pegged Trump as 6-foot-2, including Google, though the search engine now has Trump at 6-foot-3.

A special edition of Time published earlier this year profiling Trump also listed him at 6-foot-3 while noting “it irritates him that so many media outlets say 6-foot-2.”

The Trump transition did not respond to a request for comment about the height listed on his driver’s license, which was issued May 3, 2012, and expires on June 14, 2020: his 74th birthday and just less than five months before the next presidential election. His license is a Class D permit, the most common one for the state’s drivers, and comes with no additional safety restrictions.

The license was released to POLITICO by the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control through an open-records request related to the central Virginia winery that’s owned by Trump and run by his son Eric.